John Fry, a San Francisco-based investigative analyst for the Internal Revenue Service, downloaded a series of Suspicious Activity Reports pertaining to Cohen’s banking activities from IRS databases on May 4, 2018, federal prosecutors charged in the court papers, which were filed Feb. 4 and made public Thursday.

Advertisement

Immediately after obtaining the SARs, Fry called Avenatti several times, according to the indictment.

A few days later, the telegenic attorney — who’s mostly known for representing porn star Stormy Daniels — published an extensive report about Cohen’s company Essential Consultants.

Avenatti’s report revealed Cohen had used the shell company for various dubious transactions, including the illegal pre-2016 election payment to Daniels in exchange for her keeping mum about allegedly having sex with President Trump in 2006.

In Fry’s indictment, prosecutors charged the Avenatti report contained information that could only have been obtained from the very SARs that Fry had downloaded from IRS servers.

A Cohen spokeswoman did not return a request for comment.

Avenatti, meanwhile, posted an unrelated court filing on Twitter stating the Bank Secrecy Act can’t be violated by third-party disclosures in an apparent effort to clear himself of any criminal wrongdoing.

“Before certain reporters begin to run hog wild and misstate the law and obligations re SARs, now is a good time to repost this,” Avenatti captioned the post. “This is the law.”

Fry, who could not immediately be reached for comment, also leaked Cohen SARs to reporters for The Washington Post and The New Yorker, according to prosecutors.

In a May 14, 2018 text message exchange cited in the indictment, Fry specifically responded to a question from a New Yorker reporter about “the missing SARs,” a reference to confidential records that Fry was wary had been deleted from IRS servers.

“Getting to leave the office in about 10 minutes,” Fry texted back. “I can give you a call when I am in a more secure location, if that works for you.”

Advertisement

Cohen used to frequently butt heads with Avenatti while he still served as Trump’s legal bulldog and all-around personal fixer.

However, since pleading guilty to a laundry-list of crimes, some of which directly implicate Trump, Cohen has gone mostly quiet, leaving Avenatti as the lone legal bullhorn.

“For months, Cohen placed Stormy Daniels family and my family at risk through his threats and tactics,” Avenatti tweeted last month in response to Cohen pulling out of congressional testimony over alleged threats from Trump. “Now he wants to use his family as an excuse as part of a sympathy ploy for his backtracking/backing out? Be clear — it’s always about Michael.”